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| (gy ty F 


SOCIAL SEI WAKC IS 


FOR 
YOUNG PEOPLE 


MAE Ge lS OLE? 


Prepared for the Commission on the 
Church and Social Service of the 
Federal Council of the Churches 
of Christ in America 


BY 


HARRY F. WARD 


Associate Secretary 
of the Federal Council Commission 


NATIONAL OFFICES 
612 UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING 
105 East 22ND STREET 


NEw YORK 


COPYRIGHT, 1914, 
BY 
THE COMMISSION ON THE CHURCH 
AND SOCIAL SERVICE 


SOCIAL SERVICE 


OCIAL, service is that form of effort 
for man’s betterment which seeks to 
uplift and transform his associated and 
community life. There are also some 
forms of service to the social needs of the 
individual which may properly be called 
social service. ' Social service adds to the 
effort to help the individual lives of peo- 
ple the effort to establish proper condi- 
tions for the development of those lives. 
It adds to the relief of the poor and the 
sick and the prisoner the effort to dis- 
cover and remove the causes of poverty 
and disease and crime. Its goal is social 
salvation, “the deliverance of human so- 
ciety from disease, poverty, crime, and 
misery; the development and perfection 
of the institutions of men’s associated life; 
and the construction of a social order that 
is the city of God on earth.” 


2 
HISTORICAL. 


ip HE, social-service movement is no new 

thing in organized Christianity. The 
fires of Pentecost kindled a mighty pas- 
sion to help all human need that soon re- 
sulted in organized service. ‘The first 
Christians met by common action every 
need of their group, and the organized 
ministrations of the early church to the 
needs. of the age were the marvel of Ro- 
man historians. In the ministry of Jesus 
much time was devoted to doing good 
and to the relief of suffering. His open- 
ing proclamation announces a mission to 
the needs of neglected individuals and 
groups—the poor, the captives, the blind, 
the bruised. His standard of judgment is 
that of service to the sick, the poor, the 
prisoner. His whole thought of religion 
is social; it is the kingdom, the father- 
hood, the brotherhood. 

Here Jesus fulfilled the law and the 
prophets. He was the successor of those 
men who revealed God in terms of justice 
and righteousness in the community life, 
who denounced the injustice and oppres- 


3 


sion of the rich, who sought to build a 
community life with God all through it. 

Every great awakening in the church 
has emphasized the social nature of Chris- 
tianity by its results in social service. 
Our modern programme of philanthropy 
and of social and labor legislation was 
started in the Evangelical Revival. The 
ereat missionary awakening of the last 
generation developed city evangelism, the 
settlement, and the institutional church. 
The attempt to minister to the whole life 
of the young people of the slums devel- 
oped into the wider programme of remoy- 
ing those social and industrial conditions 
which are behind the slum and its im- 
perfect lives. 

Then the present social-service move- 
ment in the churches was organized with 
thirty denominations joining together 
through the Federal Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America behind a 
common social platform and with organ- 
ized agencies in the leading denomina- 
tions co-operating with other social-serv- 
ice agencies to develop plans and secure 
the measures that will carry out this 


4 


creed. ‘This means that every church will 
be a socialized church, developing a min- 
istry to its community as well as to the 
individuals around it, concerned with 
poverty and disease and delinquency, with 
civic and industrial conditions. In this 
socialized church every department must 
have a social-service programme. 

What shall be the part and place of the 
Young People’s Societies? 


5 


SOCIAL STUDY. 
ERVICE to be successful must be in- 
telligent. To be intelligent it must 
be based upon a knowledge of accepted 
principles and methods. 

Many young people who cannot be in- 
duced to join a study-class may yet be 
enlisted in a reading-course, especially if 
those who are reading the books in the 
course are gathered together occasionally 
for a social hour and for discussion. Every 
society should have its own social-service 
library, so that the books may be passed 
around freely. A list of books can be sup- 
plied, which cannot fail to catch and hold 
the interest of young people, because they 
deal with typical American conditions 
from an intimate, personal standpoint. 

Another popular form of education 
which can be made use of is the Open 
Forum for the presentation of commun- 
ity issues. At this meeting representa- 
tives of various groups in the community 
may be heard at first hand, and the form 
of communication by question and answer 
may be used to establish a closer sym- 
' pathy between speaker and audience. 


6 


COMMUNITY STUDY. 


NY programme of social service for the 
individual or the group must be based 
upon the needs of the local community. 
Therefore these must be discovered. The 
only way to discover them is to make a 
study of local conditions, which will out- 
line the field of needed activity. 

Before any work is attempted the so- 
ciety must know also what agencies are 
already at work to meet the needs of the 
community, and how they are doing it, in 
order that the society’s efforts may not 
duplicate the work of other societies, but 
supplement it. A chart can be made and 
‘placed on the wall of the church, showing 
the agencies which will help in caring for 
poverty, sickness, or delinquency, or in 
meeting any civic or social emergency. 

It is not advisable or even possible for 
the Young People’s Society to make a 
thorough study of the whole community, 
“especially in the larger centres. In a com- 
munity of ten thousand or fewer, how- 
ever, it may be possible to get a good gen- 
-eral view of conditions; but even in this 
case the effort should be confined to the 


7 


things in which young people are natu- 
rally interested. This will limit the study 
and activity, and concentrate the effort on 
a few things. Any society may well limit 
itself to discovering and improving the 
conditions of life for the young people of 
the community. ‘This will include con- 
ditions of social life and recreation, con- 
ditions of education, conditions of health 
and housing and of occupation. 

The following schedule of questions will 
give assistance to the society in studying 
its own community: 


What Every Society Should Know About 
Its Own Community. 
Poverty and Delinquency: 

What charitable agencies exist? Their gen- 
eral efficiency? Any co-operation between 
them? 

Approximate amount spent for relief in one 
year, and number of cases helped? 

What relief work is done by churches? Is 
there co-operation between the different 
departments of the individual church? 
With other churches? With other char- 
itable agencies? 

What city, county, or State provision for 
relief of poverty or sickness is there in the 
community? Does anybody inspect these 
institutions for efficiency? 


8 


Social Life and Recreation: 


What organized recreation is provided? In 
schools, churches, Young Men’s Christian 
Association, etc. 

What amusements are operated for private 
profit? General character? Any that are 
flagrantly vicious? 

What educational facilities are there for 
young people who wish to continue their 
education while working? Night-schools? 
Special classes in the Young Men’s Chris- 
tian Association and Young Women’s 
Christian Association? Lecture courses? 
Are these facilities efficient? 


Health and Housing: 


Death-rate? Infant mortality? Compared 
with neighboring communities? 

Does the health department control con- 
tagious diseases? Does it educate the 
community to measures of prevention? 

Is any part of the town living in unsanitary 
or congested houses? 

What laws are there relating to such con- 
ditions, and how are they enforced? 


Labor: 


How many young people over .sixteen are 
wage-earners in the community? Where 
do they work? How many work more 
than ten hours? More than nine hours? 
Eight hours? How many on Sunday? 
How many girls are working nights? 


9 


What are the wages of the lowest-paid 
group? Young men? Young women? Is 
there a minimum-wage law in the State, 
and is it enforced? Average wage in the 
various industries in the community? How 
does it compare with the cost of living in 
that place? 

What are the conditions of health in the 
community’s industries? What labor laws 
in the State? Do they protect the worker, 
and to what extent? Is there a system 
of factory inspection, and is it enforced? 

What is done to help young people find em- 
ployment? 


Government: 


What form of government? Who are the 
officers? What are their functions, and 
what power have they? What are the 
forces that really control? 

What departments of the local government 
most vitally affect the welfare of the com- 
munity? 

What co-operation is there between the 
church group and these departments? 


10 


HOW TO BEGIN. 


‘GOOD way to begin is for the Chris- 
tian-citizenship committee to make a 
general study of the community accord- 
ing to this schedule, modifying the sched- 
ule to fit local needs, and striking out 
such questions as are not applicable. This 
information should then be classified and 
worked up in the form of charts, so that 
it may be presented to the whole society 
in graphic fashion. The stereopticon can 
be used to good advantage in this part of 
the work. 

From this general study the members 
may select that particular condition which 
appears to call most urgently for action. 
When this has been done, a more detailed 
study of that condition should be made 
before anything is done to meet the need. 

In the case of city societies the district 
should be defined, and other young peo- 
ple’s groups should if possible be enlisted 
in the effort. 


11 


MAKING THE WORK CON- 
STRUCTIVE. 


Relief Work. ‘The practical work of 
the society cannot be called social service 
until it becomes constructive and preven- 
tive as well as palliative. Social service 
is not content to relieve without at the 
same time investigating the causes of dis- 
tress and seeking to remove them. 

The very first principle of relief work 
iS co-operation, co-operation within the 
church itself, seeing that one organization 
does not duplicate the work of another; 
co-operation with other churches of the 
same denomination and of other denomi- 
nations; and co-operation with agencies 
outside the church, especially with the or- 
ganized charities of the community. 

The second principle is quite as im- 
portant; there should be continuity of 
service. Spasmodic help will not only do 
little good, but may work harm. What- 
ever work may be selected, it should not 
be dropped until it has been carried 
through to completion and there is no fur- 
ther need of it. It is much better to select 
a permanent problem, and give attention 


12 


to that, than to attempt many different 
pieces of work, doing only a little of each. 
For instance, if help is given to a family, 
it should be helped continuously until the 
members are able to care for themselves; 
not receive a basket at Thanksgiving or 
Christmas time and be left to itself the 
remainder of the year. 

Nearly every society has among its 
members one or more young women who 
are able to give a good deal of time to 
visitation and other relief work. ‘These 
should be trained as friendly visitors in 
the community, so that their services may 
be guided and directed in such a way as 
will make it doubly valuable. ‘The local 
charity organization will accept such vol- 
unteer help and give the desired training. 

Work for the Sick. Where there is a 
hospital in the community, many small 
services may be performed for the 
patients, especially for those in the free 
wards. Religious services may be held. 
Reading-matter may be provided, and 
some one may be assigned to read aloud 
a certain amount of time each week. Let- 
ters may be written; often in the con- 


13 


valescent wards a programme of music 
and readings will be appreciated. Many 
unions of Young People’s Societies are 
doing excellent work along these lines 
through their hospital department. 

If there are dispensaries, social-service . 
work may be carried on by a system of 
following up the patients to see that the 
physician’s orders are carried out and that 
the patients are provided with the means 
of procuring what is prescribed, and to 
improve the home conditions so that fur- 
ther illness may be prevented. 

Rural societies may provide fruit and 
flowers for the sick in the city by co- 
operating with the city societies. Express 
companies will usually carry such gifts 
free of charge. 

Work for the sick must.not end with 
relief. It must be extended until it looks 
also to the prevention of illness and to the 
aggressive advocating of public - health 
measures. ‘The local health department 
will be glad of volunteer help in spread- 
ing knowledge concerning its plans for 
sanitation and the proper care of disease, 
in reporting violations of health laws, in 


14 


distributing literature dealing with public 
health, in its effort to eliminate improper 
housing-conditions, and in the effort to 
enforce the health laws of the community. 

Aiding the Prisoner. Young People’s 
societies have been organized in the pris- 
ons and penitentiaries in more than a 
score of States, and are doing most effi- 
cient service. In other places stated re- 
ligious services are held. Reading-matter 
may be distributed in the jails; and, if this 
service is attempted, it should be syste- 
matic and continuous. And such reading- 
matter should be fresh and interesting. 
Out-of-date church papers will not inter- 
est the people usually found in jails. 

Find out whether the prisoners have 
employment. If not, insist that some- 
thing be given them to do for a reasonable 
number of hours six days in the week. 
Interest the judges and officers of the law 
in helping to secure modern equipment 
and modern methods of handling prison- 
ers. Co-operate with organizations that 
care for the prisoners after they are dis- 
charged. 


15 


SOCIALIZING THE SOCIAL 
DEPARTMENT. 

N every community there are groups of 

young people who are not touched or 
brought into contact in any way with the 
young people in the church societies. 
Every society should make an effort to 
get into contact with these. 

Homeless Young People. ‘Take, for in- 
stance, that increasing number of young 
men and women in the cities who are 
away from home, without the restraints 
of their former environment, and without 
proper social life in their new surround- 
ings. Practical help may take the form of 
finding proper boarding-places and get- 
ting these homeless ones invited into 
Christian homes to spend Sunday, so that 
they may have a touch of home life. The 
social hour after church, and the fireside 
social Sunday afternoon from four to six, 
at which light refreshments are served, 
have been used as a weapon against the 
loneliness and dangers of that hour. 

Young People from Abroad. Then there 
are the immigrant young men and women. 
If America is to care for the new peoples 


16 


who are drawn in such numbers by the 
promise of a greater liberty, it will be 
only as the American young people, and 
especially those of the churches, see in 
these groups an opportunity for splendid 
service. Suspicion and prejudice toward 
those of another race will never be dis- 
armed until the young people meet face 
to face and find out for themselves the 
essential unity of the race. | 

Classes in English and civics afford a 
eood opportunity for getting acquainted. 
There are now a number of books de- 
signed for the purpose of teaching for- 
eigners in simple, untechnical fashion, so 
that any ordinarily well-educated person 
may successfully lead such a class. 
‘The national social, in which the vari- 
ous groups of foreigners furnish the en- 
tertainment by appearing in native cos- 
tumes and giving exhibitions of the man- 
ners and customs of their own countries, 
is another excellent means of getting ac- 
quainted. In the cities where these for- 
eign groups have their own editors, sing- 
ers, and other leaders, these will usually 
gladly aid in an enterprise of this kind. 


17 


Devise your own methods for extending 
the circle of friendship outside the 
church group. The essential thing is to 
come into vital contact with the young 
people of other nationalities in the com- 
munity, for this will open the way to 
larger forms of service to the immigrant 
group. 

Recreation for All. Has your society a 
consistent and persistent programme of 
recreation, or does it merely give a “so- 
cial” occasionally? A well-planned pro- 
gramme, covering the half-year season, 
will yield far more satisfactory results 
than a haphazard effort to furnish recrea- 
tion. The plans should be extended to in- 
clude every possible group in the com- 
munity. The autumn season may begin 
with informal “welcome” receptions to 
the various groups who have been away 
for the summer, teachers, students, etc.; 
and the programme for this period may 
take many forms, such as musical and 
literary evenings. 

Education, especially in the city, may 
be combined with recreation by making 
visits in groups to various places of in- 


18 


terest in the city. This is a particularly 
good plan for Saturday afternoons in the 
summer, when the trip may end with a 
picnic or social of some kind out-of-doors. 

The Rural Society. The rural society 
has quite as many advantages as the city 
society when it comes to planning for or- 
ganized recreation. Here, as in the city, 
there may be musical evenings, debates, 
moving pictures, and athletics for the win- 
ter season; in addition, the rural society 
may plan in the summer for such events 
as the community fair, patterned after the 
county-fair idea, giving prizes for the best 
flowers, fruits, samples of cooking, hand- 
work, etc., and arranged by the young 
people themselves. 

Combining education and recreation is 
easy in the country community, for there 
are fewer attractions than in the city, and 
such events are more likely to succeed. 
The State university and the agricultural 
schools will usually co-operate in furnish- 
ing lectures on various subjects. 

The pageant and the festival for national 
holidays or other times can be used by 
both city and country societies, but the 
country society will have some advan- 
tages over the city group. 


19 


FRESH-AIR WORK. 


C ITY and rural societies may work to- 
gether in planning for fresh-air and 
summer-vacation work, as is being done 
by many unions of Young People’s So- 
cieties. The district may be organized, 
and a list of the farmhouses secured where 
young people from the city will be taken 
for short periods at moderate rates. The 
city society may furnish the names of 
young people who would be benefited by 
deevacdtione olla start. but who cannot 
afford summer-resort prices. | 
Another plan which can be worked to 
advantage is for the rural societies to 
organize summer camps by furnishing the 
place and the equipment for the camp. 
The city group may pay the running-ex- 
penses by appointing a club to handle this 
part of it, making the rates cover the 
operating-expenses of the venture. The 
good accomplished does not stop with the 
individuals benefited; it will establish as 
well a working acquaintanceship between 
city and rural societies, which is sure to 
result in further successful ventures to- 
eether. 


20 


Organized recreation by means of these 
and other methods is taking an increas- 
ingly large place in the work of Young 
People’s Societies. But, as these societies 
continue to develop plans for the recrea- 
tion of their own members and as many 
others as they can reach, they will dis- 
cover that the combined efforts of all the 
young people, and of all the older people 
even, cannot reach all the individuals in 
the community. There will be groups, 
especially in the larger centres, that re- 
main untouched. 

How is the society to help here? It 
will first reveal the need of community 
recreation, by lectures, by pictures, by 
charts, by contact with conditions; and 
then it will work for the broader pro- 
gramme of community recreation by 
means of public parks, playgrounds, and 
social centres, all properly supervised and 
directed, in the meantime doing its full 
share of the work of supplying wholesome 
fun for as many of the community as it 
can reach. 

Recreation and Social Purity. No so- 
ciety will be content to provide whole- 


21 


some amusement without the effort to 
prevent improper types. And the preven- 
tion of improper recreation will lead to 
the problem of organized vice, for the two 
are inseparable. The public dance-halls, 
the amusement-parks, and the excursion- 
steamers are recruiting-stations for the 
dealers in commercialized vice. 

The first step in prevention is to under- 
stand that a segregated district in any 
community is unnecessary, that it remains 
only because of the consent of the com- 
munity. It cannot be too emphatically 
stated that segregation as a policy is no 
longer considered necessary or even 
sound. ‘This stand is taken not only by 
the religious forces, but by social workers 
and progressive thinkers the country over. 
This distinctly new attitude is the result 
of the scientific investigations made 
within the last few years by specially se- 
lected commissions in various parts of the 
country. 

If there is a segregated district in your 
community, why should it continue to 
exist? If it continues, it means assuredly 
that some girls and boys must be sacri- 


22 


ficed. ‘The young people of the commun- 
ity should be interested to see that no 
girls are drawn into that life. 

The second step is education in personal 
standards. Commercialized vice can be 
rooted out as soon as the community 
wills. But the only way in which the so- 
cial evil will be eradicated entirely will 
be by the recognition of the single stand- 
ard of morality. The influence of Chris- 
tian young people should be thrown on 
the side of the single standard and every- 
thing that makes for it. 

The society will lend its influence in the 
suppression of songs, pictures, and liter- 
ature that may be suggestive, and will 
avoid in every way anything that may 
tend toward evil thoughts. Conscientious 
young women will avoid extreme fashions 
in dress, which are usually not only lack- 
ing in modesty and utility, but inartistic 
as well. . 

Notices should be placed in the public 
buildings of the community directing 
young people going into the city to apply 
for information and direction only to offi- 
cials in uniform. Societies in the smaller 


23 


towns and cities may see that their mem- 
bers who are moving into the larger cen- 
tres are put in touch with the city so- 
cieties through the introduction depart- 
ment of the Young People’s Societies. 
Christianizing Industry. The modern 
church has started on the task of making 
industry Christian. The young people of 
the churches will find their share of this 
task in endeavoring to improve the condi- 
tions under which young people are now 
working. ‘The most pressing need is for 
legislation concerning the hours of work 
and the creation of minimum-wage boards. 
If there are no such laws, work for them. 
Whether the effort shall be for an eight, 
nine, or ten-hour law will depend upon 
how far advanced your State is and what 
the industrial group is fighting for. 
Find out where and under what condi- 
tions the young people of your commun- 
ity are working—in factories, stores, laun- 
dries, telephone exchanges. It is fre- 
quently possible by arousing sentiment in 
a community to secure the immediate im- 
provement of conditions by bringing local 
influence and pressure to bear on employ- 


24. 


ers without waiting for the slow process 
of legislation. If satisfactory laws already 
exist, help to get them enforced. 

The rural society may concern itself 
with the conditions of agricultural labor. 
The work of women on the farm needs to 
be made lighter, more attractive, and more 
enjoyable. The Agricultural Department 
at Washington, as well as the State agri- 
cultural school will furnish many sugges- 
tions that will aid in making farm life 
more profitable as well as more interest- 
ing. Community gatherings for the open 
discussion of ways and means may be 
made the occasion of social as well as 
educational meetings. 


25 


GOOD GOVERNMENT. 


HEWN the society sets out earnestly 

to improve community conditions, 
whether it be in recreation, industry, or 
health, it will not go very far before it 
will find that it must work through the 
government. Members of Young Peo- 
ple’s Societies must learn that real citizen- 
ship entails a larger responsibility than 
going to the polls occasionally and cast- 
ing a vote. The presentation in the Sun- 
day-evening meetings of subjects that will 
enlighten the young people concerning 
the local government and its management 
will therefore be of more than passing 
value. 

The society will provide for the public 
discussion of all measures which touch 
the community welfare, and especially 
measures concerning the lives of young 
people. 

A pre-legislation institute has been 
worked with success. ‘This institute con- 
sists of a full discussion of all the im- . 
portant measures which are to come up 
at the pending session of the State legis- 


26 


lature, by prominent men and women who 
are qualified to speak on the proposed 
legislation. 

Another plan which tends toward good 
citizenship is the ceremony for first voters. 
Arrange for the presentation of certifi- 
cates of citizenship to those who are about 
to vote for the first time, including im- 
migrants who have just taken out natural- 
ization papers. Speeches may be made 
by the leading officials of the community, 
music furnished by the school children, 
and the occasion made a community social 
event. At such meetings it may be pos- 
sible to secure members for classes in 
citizenship. 

In some communities a junior govern- 
ment has been organized, in which a 
eroup of young people elect some of their 
number to fill offices similar to those held 
in the local government. ‘These junior 
officers become auxiliaries to the regular 
officials, assisting them in every way, and 
using the other young people as auxiliary 
forces to this end. In aiding the health 
department there has been organized in 
some places a junior sanitary police to in- 


27 


spect the health conditions of the com- 
munity and to endeavor to secure the ob- 
servance of health ordinances. 

Every society should have on the wall 
of its meeting-place a directory of public 
servants—Senators, Representatives (both 
State and national), aldermen, county 
commissioners, members of the school 
board, and others. Then, when it is de- 
sired to bring the influence of the mem- 
bers to bear on officials who have certain 
measures under consideration, the names 
and addresses will be easily accessible to 
all. 


CONCLUSION. 


Finally, the members of Young Peo- 
ple’s Societies should see that anything 
they may be able to do is only a small 
part of a mighty movement, which is only 
in its initial stage in the churches and in 
the whole of modern life. This move- 
ment is arousing the religious passion for 
service and applying that impulse to the 
redemption and ‘construction of society. 
It is evangelizing the whole life of human- 


28 


ity, and there is need for every Christian 
to consecrate himself to this great task 
of Christianizing the social order. 


Social service literature relating to the prob- 
lems considered in this leaflet may be ob- 
tained on application to the Federal Council 
Commission.on the Church and Social Service, 


105 Fast 22d Street, New York. 


No. 63 








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